The liver, kidneys, spleen, digestive system, respiratory system, lymphatic system and skin all work together as your natural detox system to try and keep potentially harmful substances (toxins) out of our bodies, or to neutralize them if they do get in. So how well are your body’s defenses working?

What is a toxin?

Toxins are substances that can harm us when they are ingested into the body. If asked to name some toxins, most people would mention alcohol, tobacco and caffeine first, and they would be right in so far as these are all substances that can cause significant harm to the body. They are deliberately ingested toxins, but there are many more that we don’t consume deliberately and may not even be aware of. Some are in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the foods, even seemingly healthy ones that we eat.

When you eat a strawberry that has been sprayed with pesticide to kill any bugs in the strawberry patch, you ingest the pesticide along with the vitamin C and antioxidants of the fruit. When you stand on a city street and breathe in, your lungs have to cope with a cocktail of exhaust fumes and other gases, among which is the oxygen we need to stay alive. When you drink mineral water, you could be consuming traces of antimony, a poison that has been found in plastic bottles, alongside the water we need for survival.

We are surrounded by toxins at every turn, no matter how hard we try to be healthy. Fortunately, however, our bodies have ways of dealing with most of the substances they come into contact with.

Prevention is the best defense

To get into the body, toxins have to be inhaled, eaten or absorbed through the skin. The first-line defenses try to prevent entry in the first place but, if they fail, there are second and third lines in waiting.

Respiratory system

When you breathe in through your nose, some tiny hairs – cilia – filter out particles of dust and soot, which will be expelled the next time you sneeze or blow your nose. The mucous membranes lining the mouth and nose contain a chemical called lactoferrin, which destroys bacteria, and saliva also has a host of antibacterial ingredients. As air travels down the respiratory tract, more cilia and mucous membranes remove any unwanted particles and phlegm is produced to ferry them upwards, triggering sensors that induce us to cough.

Once in the lungs, the air enters sacs known as alveoli, and there the white blood cells identify any dust or potential toxins that have made it through the other defenses and they release the appropriate toxin-killing cells. At least, this is the case in normal, healthy adults; those with asthma or other lung problems don’t fight toxins quite so successfully.